County splits engineer budget to create Development Management department

Kendall County’s commissioners on July 30 approved a reorganization of the engineer budget that will create a separate Development Management department from the existing county engineer fund.

Mary Ellen, who presented the breakout to the court, said the numbers were shown in red on the distributed pages so commissioners could see what portions of the current engineer budget would be allocated to the new development engineer line. She told the court the “total budget is the same that was presented to you earlier; it is just shown here in red as split out for what part goes to development, what part goes to county engineer.”

The change shifts operating costs (vehicle maintenance, fuel, office supplies) into a development bucket and will change the general ledger code for development work back to Department 590; county engineering work will remain in Department 402 at a reduced level. Commissioners tested the proposal’s assumptions, asking whether reductions in contract services would leave adequate contingency for flood repairs and whether the county was underfunding operational needs.

Commissioner questioning pressed a placeholder for salary and benefits. Mary Ellen explained the budget includes a $25,000 placeholder in the exempt personnel line to approximate the salary for a development engineer “as a cap of a step 6 with benefits,” and said the exact salary will be plugged in after the court approves the position and pay. On the split she argued the intent is to be net neutral: “I was just trying to show that we accounted for no increase to the budget,” she said.

Next steps: staff will convert the figures to the new GL structure for the proposed budget publication and return with salary details after the court sets the position and step level. The court asked staff to preserve a small contingency for flood-related temporary repairs while the structural split goes into the formal proposed budget.